Archive for March, 2010

SNUGGLE
Look for a $3 off coupon for Snuggle (32 liquid or larger or 70 ct sheet or larger) in this past weeks Red Plum insert. This week Snuggle is on sale at Discount Drug Mart for $2.99 – get it free! Most stores have it for around $3.50 to $4.00. If your poncho feels like hay, nothing like a sheet of Snuggle to make it feel like cashmere.

WEIGHT LOSS
I was in a weight loss contest at work. I had those 5 to 10 pounds that I wanted to get rid of, but was harder to get rid of as I get older. The contest was 10 weeks long and it ended the other week.

One of the toughest things about the contest – this year and last year – was that we went on vacations just before the last weigh-in. Last year it was London and Paris. This year it was New York. So while in New York I ate a lot of fish and didn’t go overboard eating or drinking. I walked a ton just like last year. I also bench-pressed strangers. When I got the munchies I’d lick some pigeons. For some reason the pigeons with a smattering of gray patterns on them tasted better. I found reciting the Magna Carta kept my mind off hunger too.

I lost a total of 16.25 pounds. I also went from 15.72% body fat to 11.81%. Apparently I ate me spinach. I ranked 5th overall with a 25% body fat loss. The best was 38.75%. My wife now plays the xylophone on my abs. And she has taken to bouncing quarters off of me because she likes the clink sound it makes. What is amazing is that I did the contest last year and my body fat then was 20.96% and went down to 16.97%. So I started this contest below last year’s measurements, but my weight was almost exactly the same as the previous year. Now I just gotta keep the weight off. I don’t want to do this contest again because I gained all the weight back.

Our team won with the most workouts. One of the team members, my boss, won Mr. Two-a-Days. I won the Chief award – I played the Captain. One guy from another team lost 49 pounds. That’s about losing a 1st grader…I think they would weigh around 49 pounds.

In the end it comes down to eating less, making healthier food choices and excercising more. Simple, but not always easy. With all the tasty freebie food I get it’s easy to snack on it into the night. Five pounds becomes ten becomes twenty in no time. But it was like Lent, giving up food for a period of time like candy, cookies, and anything else that tasted really good.

Being overweight has its own issues from health to social to relationships. It can cost you money through extra food and doctor visits and operations that are weight-related from knee problems to getting rid of that arm gaggle. I noticed how some of my suits got a little tight. They were so tight that one cough and I’d be standing in my socks and underwear.

How many of you out there have asked your spouse, “Do I look fat?” That’s a loaded question and has made liars out of many spouses, but think about it…don’t you want your spouse to be healthy and let them know when their weight might affect their health and thus the family. Answers that might get you in the dog house:
“From the back or the side?”
“Saturated or unsaturated?”
“No, I think you will still only be charged for one airline seat.”

Need some help with your weight loss? Try http://www.fatsecret.com, http://www.sparkpeople.com, and http://www.fitday.com. Another great site that tells you how bad some food is to eat and what would make a better choice is http://www.eatthis.com. Many restaurants are now listing calories and fat in their meals. You’d be amazed how much is in some restaurant meals. At times your better off just licking pigeons.

TOP TEN SIGNS THAT SPRING IS HERE
10) Windshield washer fluid now replaced with lemonade.
9) Robins no longer have to thaw out frozen earthworms over hot mufflers.
8) Package of Crocuses I forgot in my car trunk are now blooming.
7) Potholes now being filled with cypress mulch.
6) Migrating birds scavenging for french fries again at the local McDonalds.
5) Time for my spring bath.
4) The smell of baseball and steriods is in the air.
3) The gray of winter is now replaced by the gray of spring.
2) Local hibernating mammals are awaken by the sound of back-firing lawn mowers.
1) Clocks I forget to move back one hour in the fall are now on the right time.

APPLIANCE REBATE
Ohio is offering rebates on Energy Star rated appliances. The number of rebates offered is limited and there are stipulations to the rebate. Check Lowe’s and Home Depot for their additional 10% off specials. Appliances and their rebate amounts:
Refrigerator $100
Clothes Washer $150
Dishwasher $100
High-Efficiency Gas Storage Water Heater $100
Electric Heat Pump Water Heater $250
Click here for more information and to reserve a rebate for your purchase:http://www.ohioappliancerebate.com

OUR TOWN COUPON BOOK
Get a free $50 Willoughby Brewing restaurant.com gift certificate with each Our Town coupon book order! Each Our Town coupon book costs $25. Find hundreds of coupons in the Our Town book including those for restaurants, golf, West Side Market, wineries, pizza, dry cleaning, movies, and fast food.

SAVVY SHOPPER BOOKLET
Now over 150 pages! Dozens of topics. The updated booklet features thousands of money-saving tips, over 1,000 savings web sites, travel savings, finding cell phone deals, freebies, gas and natural gas savings, couponing, restaurant savings, rules on saving money, wedding savings, home maintenance and utility savings, technology deals, entertainment deals, how to save 70% and more on groceries and toiletries, as well as loads of information on transforming you from an over-spender to a saver!
Click here to order: http://www.joethecouponguy.com/merchandise/index.htm

RESTAURANT.COM
Get 80% off on restaurant gift certificates! Spend $2 for a $25 gift certificate!
At checkout use coupon code: COOK
Ends 3/31.
Certificates are good for one year.
Click here to order:RESTAURANT.COM 80% OFF DEAL

OUR TOWN COUPON BOOK
Get a free $50 Willoughby Brewing restaurant.com gift certificate with each Our Town coupon book order! Each Our Town coupon book costs $25. Find hundreds of coupons in the Our Town book including those for restaurants, golf, West Side Market, wineries, pizza, dry cleaning, movies, and fast food.

TOP TEN SIGNS THAT SPRING IS HERE
10) Windshield washer fluid now replaced with lemonade.
9) Robins no longer have to thaw out frozen earthworms over hot mufflers.
8) Package of Crocuses I forgot in my car trunk are now blooming.
7) Potholes now being filled with cypress mulch.
6) Migrating birds scavenging for french fries again at the local McDonalds.
5) Time for my spring bath.
4) The smell of baseball and steriods is in the air.
3) The gray of winter is now replaced by the gray of spring.
2) Local hibernating mammals are awaken by the sound of back-firing lawn mowers.
1) Clocks I forget to move back one hour in the fall are now on the right time.

BEST DEAL MAGAZINES
Deal of the Week:
TASTE OF HOME Additional 20% Off $3.75 for 1 year Coupon Code: WKLYSPEC
WEIGHT WATCHERS Additional 20% Off $3.75 for 1 year Coupon Code: WKLYSPEC
PARENTS Additional 20% Off $3.75 for 1 year Coupon Code: WKLYSPEC

LAKE COUNTY CAPTAINS $19 for Two Box Seats, Two Baseballs, and Two Food Vouchers at a Lake County Captains Game on April 8, 9, or 10 ($38 Value) – Opening Day weekend. And Thursdays are nickel beer nights (5:30 to 6:30). Click here to get the deal – today only!: LAKE COUNTY CAPTAINS DEAL

RESTAURANT.COM
Get 80% off on restaurant gift certificates! Spend $2 for a $25 gift certificate!
At checkout use coupon code: COOK
Ends 3/31.
Certificates are good for one year.
Click here to order:RESTAURANT.COM 80% OFF DEAL

TARGET
Monopoly – $7 – use $5 coupon (Hasbro coupon insert section in 3/21 paper) = $2
Connect 4 – $7 – use $4 coupon = $3 – I bought one that had a free Domino coupon on it – thing is it expired 2/28/10 – I guess I bought a stale Connect 4 – but also be aware that they were ringing up $14.99 – they changed the price to $7 after I told them the sign said they were $7.

NEW YORK
We went on a little vacation to New York City this past week. I was there last in 1989 over New Years and got to watch the ball drop on Times Square. The town seemed a bit more tidied up this time.

The weather was horrible. We went through 3 umbrellas. The wind kept turning them inside out. The streets were strewn with lifeless skeletons of umbrellas that people tossed.

We booked a flight via Priceline.com. I used http://www.Kayak.com to let me know when the fare price dropped. Using a Continental credit card we didn’t have to pay extra baggage fees.

To get from the airport to the hotel the best mode of transportation was to travel by subway or bus. We got a one-week fare for $27 for unlimited bus/subway travel. A taxi from just the airport to the hotel would’ve cost at least $35. The subway saved us tons and was convenient and easy. We did have a whack-job or two on the subway, but nothing unexpected. One was ranting about something and told people to smile. One was raising money for a midnight basketball league. One sang while another said it was for a midnight basketball camp. I didn’t see many bums or any rats…except for the Yankees. Go Tribe!

Driving to New York and parking in a garage can be very expensive. Easier to get around via the bus and subway system.

We used Hotels.com to get the hotel. They ran a 30% off special last fall and I was able to get another 10% off. We stayed at the Salisbury hotel on West 57th in Midtown Manhattan. Perfect location. The hotel charged $10 a day for Wifi, but luckily I was able to pick up free Wifi. Most expensive hotels charge for Wifi while the cheap hotels don’t. We asked for an upgrade and they wanted to charge $50 more for the suite. Not bad, but I wanted free. They offered us a Corporate King room for free. I happily said yes while I moonwalked across the lobby.

We did a lot. Saw the Late Show with David Letterman, Dr. Oz Show, and the Colbert Report all for free. All it usually takes is sending them a request for a ticket via their web-site. I even requested tickets for the View. Didn’t get the tics and my ears thanked me later for that.

We were on the Early Morning Show freezing with the rest of the handful of people outside.

Someone from the Letterman show called me about the tickets and I had to answer a question before they gave them to me. They asked what color the hair of Allen Coulter was, the show’s announcer. What, what I thought to myself. I hadn’t watched the show much since it went to CBS. I was a die-hard back in the NBC days. I saw him back in ’89. But the color of Allan’s hair stumped me. I said gray. He said brighter. I thought bald or white. Nope. He meant red. I should’ve told him that he dyed his hair red and it really is gray. So he gave me another chance. He asked what Dave throws – and before he finished the question I blurted out “PENCIL!” Got the tickets.

Jennifer Aniston was the guest. He keeps the studio at 53 degrees. Nobody likes sweaty guests.

I e-mailed for tickets for Colbert a couple months before the show and a couple weeks for Dr. Oz. I didn’t get tickets for tons of other shows I requested. Some said sending duplicate requests will cause them to throw out your request.

Waiting for the tapings was a pain. They herd you into pens and you have to wait while they get things organized. The seats we got for each show weren’t the best and it’s a crapshoot as to where you will sit. No rhyme or reason as to where you line up or whatnot. You can probably see me in some of the shots of each show. Or you can hear me blurting out stuff or laughing. I have a very-recognizeable heh, heh, heh, laugh.

I was on the Dr. Oz show about sex addiction. Let me rephrase that. I wasn’t one of the guests. I was there to see the show about sex addiction. Quite the show it was. Dr. Drew was there to talk with a sex addict couple.

Another segment was on when food expires. This was my bag. Listen for me yelling out 8 months as to when mustard expires – and I got it right. I also yelled out 6 months for when meat expires. I was wrong on that one. It was 12 months – hmmm, not sure if I would recommend keeping meat frozen for 12 months. Cans of vegetables was 24 months and I knew that. The lady stopped at 12 months. And eggs were 1 month and I knew that one too, but the lady stopped at 3 months. I wouldn’t want to eat at her house.

The last segment he took questions. One gal had an issue with her arm going numb, another gal said her bottom half of her nipple was white, and the other asked something about her odor from her menses – I’m not making these up and I wish I was. The show will air in a couple weeks.

Colbert Report aired on Tuesday already. Very funny. They had a comic warm up the crowd. For each show they also give you a pep talk to tell you to get into the show and laugh. If they let me tell a few knock-knock jokes I’m sure I could’ve gotten the crowd in a frenzy.

We also tried to get into Saturday Night Live via stand-by, but I knew our chances were slim. Apparently they only take ticket requests in August of each year. We were number 200 and 201 on stand-by. We didn’t get up at some ungodly hour to wait in line. Some people get in line in the middle of the night to go stand-by. Instead we stopped around noon and asked if there were still any available and there were. The weather was horrible all weekend so we figured there was a slight chance the weather will keep some ticketholders away.

We had to show up at 10:45 PM that night to wait in line. They took the first 30 people up and checked them for knives, guns, bombs, and the other usual stuff that people might try to sneak into a popular show. My most menacing item that I tried to sneak in was Trident gum with a foil pack.

As I figured we didn’t get into the show. There were only a couple people from the group of 30 that they brought in that got into the show. We watched the show when we got back to the room and it was one of their lame shows – one of many. Their pep talk people must get paid good for SNL.

We saw people lined up to be contestants on The Biggest Loser. Lotsa beef there. A greeter at the NBC store noted how the stairs were very sturdy where they were lined up.

Got some deals at the NBC shop. They had clearance items on sale for an ADDITIONAL 40% off. Plus because we had wristbands for the Dr. Oz show we got an additional 10% off. I got myself a t-shirt that said “I’m what Willis was talking about.”

We saw Mama Mia. I went to http://www.nytix.com. When I first checked they had seats available in the fourth row. They were on special at $150 for 2. Not bad, but I wanted better. There is a place called TKTS that you wait in line for that sells tickets for half off on the day of the show. I figured I could find them there. But I checked again on nytix and found that row 10 was now the best seats available. Snap, I said in my head. Then for the heck of it I clicked on next best available. Then again, and again and again. The fourth time was the charm. Row A. Yes, front row for the same price as the initial tickets I looked at. And sure enough, we sat front row next to the orchestra. We chatted with one of the percussion guys. He was cool. I asked some places to eat and go. So between his parts he would sit down and furiously write down places to go. At the end of the show he handed us three pieces of paper full of stuff.

We visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The ‘recommended’ admission fee is $20 for adults. What that means is that you can tell them you will pay 10 cents and they will take that as your admission price. We got in for $10 for each of us – didn’t want to be too cheap after all. It’s a great museum. We could’ve spent much more time there. It was crowded.

We used Restaurant.com for all of our dinners. The locations and restaurants were perfect. The food prices were about the same as in Cleveland, but the wine and beer prices were at least 50% more. A lady told us they had raised their taxes on alcohol.

We stopped at local supermarkets to get some breakfast food and snacking. Found items on sale at great prices.

We saw the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Only $12 for the ferry ride over to both. Don’t take the line that just sails past them. Go to the one sponsored by the National Park Service at http://www.statuecruises.com/.

We did pay a visit to the World Trade Center area. Very somber to know what happened to the people in those buildings. They are putting up the new buildings there now. Looks like they started not too long ago. Being there makes you realize that we still need to defend this nation as we are in Afghanistan where Al-Quida is holed up and where they are planning more plots of devastation against America. Nobody wants to be at War, but I don’t think they will ever want to make peace. Africa is where much of Al-Quaida is being trained now too. I wouldn’t be surprised if more actions are taken there. Must always be vigilant to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

We brought some coupons for fast food places and some printed out coupons for restaurants. Used some.

You can find some good souvenir T-shirt deals. They sell them 6 for $10 or 7 for $10.99. Haggling is always par for the course.

New York is good to visit. Lotsa concrete and not many green spaces. Huge buildings and lots of them. I’ll have to let LeBron know his home is better off in Cleveland though. And after all, the Harlem Globetrotters can beat the Knicks on any night. His empire fits much better in Cleveland.

RED ROOF
Using your RediCard®, save 25% on your room at participating Red Roof locations. You’ll also receive a “Buy One Build Your Own Grand Slam® Breakfast and Get One Free” coupon from Denny’s. Book in advance at http://www.redroof.com or by calling 800.RED.ROOF (800.733.7663). Use Promo Code 604992 on the phone or on the web.

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Click here to order:BEST DEAL MAGAZINES

OH NO YOU DIDN’T
Check out this video showing retailers selling returned, opened underwear. Yes, ewwww. The stores were big-name stores. Makes me think I can get my money back from some old pairs that I’ve had since ’88.
Click here to view the video:http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/35659447#35659447

RESTAURANT.COM
Take 70% Off purchases through March 22nd, with every order! Use our new discount code “LUCKY” on all three of their popular products, $25 Gift Certificates, Dinner of the Month Club, and NEW $25 Gift Cards. Pay $3 for $25 gift certificates.
At checkout use coupon code: LUCKY
Ends 3/22/10
Click here to order:RESTAURANT.COM 70% OFF DEAL

OUTBACK STEAKHOUSE
Now until March 31st, all Veterans and Active Military will receive a Free Bloomin’ Onion with proof of military service.

SCHLOTZKY’S DELI
Look for a $5 off a $10 purchase coupon in the back page of the Sports section in Friday’s News-Herald. Good deal since it’s half off and there are no stipulations on what you have to buy.

RED ROOF
Using your RediCard®, save 25% on your room at participating Red Roof locations! You’ll also receive a “Buy One Build Your Own Grand Slam® Breakfast and Get One Free” coupon from Denny’s. Book in advance at http://www.redroof.com or by calling 800.RED.ROOF (800.733.7663). Simply use Promo Code 604992 on the phone or on the web.